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Adrian Kempe is coming off a breakout season with the Los Angeles Kings, upping his production and taking on a larger role within the forward group.
Kempe scored 35 goals and 54 points in just 78 games, which was a huge increase in goals and points from previous career-highs. His clear asset has been his speed and acceleration but this season, we saw a significant improvement in his finishing ability. While his typical pace for assists stayed on par, it was his goal totals that saw a huge spike and the question now is whether he'll be able to repeat his scoring success going forward.
This season, Kempe did post a career-high shooting percentage of 14.2 per cent. While he had posted a shooting percentage of 13.4 per cent back in the 2017-18 season, his shooting percentage has often been much lower, ranging between about 7 and 11 per cent.
However, a huge change in Kempe’s production can also simply be attributed to the fact that he was shooting much more. Take a look at his shots per 82-game averages over his six NHL seasons:
2016-17: 105 shots/82
2017-18: 120 shots/82
2018-19: 119 shots/82
2019-20: 176 shots/82
2020-21: 186 shots/82
2021-22: 260 shots/82
Obviously this year, Kempe had a massive increase in shot production. Some of this can be linked to an increase in role and ice time, given that he was playing about 1:40 per game more than he had the previous year. Away from stats though, Kempe was just noticeably more willing to not just take shots, but also hold the puck and try to make plays. He has a great release and now we’ve seen the impact of him using it more.
A shooting percentage around 14 per cent is high and realistically, we could see his scoring take a small step back next season. Away from his scoring ability though, Kempe plays a high-intensity game and has generally been quite strong defensively for the Kings. Even if his scoring does see a bit of a decline from his 2021-22 pace, he’s a forward with a relatively well-rounded game.
That said, he’s solidified himself as a quality top-six forward and with a similarly large role, ending up somewhere around 30 goals next season once again is certainly possible.
Quizwiz
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